Polpourri: Public servants to pay more toward health care, but how much?

Among the numerous sticking points for Democrats in Gov. Rick Snyder’s blow-it-up-and-start-over budget is a plan to make public employees pay 20 percent of their health care.

Rep. Roy Schmidt, D-Grand Rapids, who enjoys strong labor support, talked mostly in measured tones about the budget in a taping of WGVU’s West Michigan Week. But he was not about to commit to the 20-percent figure.

Senate Republican Jansen, the show’s other guest, wasn’t supporting it, either. Because he wants more. Jansen is sticking to his bill for a 25-percent employee contribution.

AP File PhotoMarc Grossman

Envoy choice hailed
The new U.S. envoy to one of the world’s hottest spots is a great pick, says Dixie Anderson, head of the World Affairs Council of Western Michigan.

Anderson knows because she served on the Council’s national board with Ambassador Marc Grossman, chosen by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week as special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Grossman succeeds a larger-than-life character in Richard Holbrooke, who died unexpectedly in December.

“His (Grossman’s) style will be, I predict, radically different than Holbrooke. He is much more circumspect,” Anderson said.